Multiple mountain bike structures in the Bow Valley Wildland Provincial Park’s restricted area were dismantled following a 15-person tear down effort last week.
The structures were illegally constructed along unauthorized trails in the wildlife corridor near Highline Trail and included bike jumps, ramps, tresses, drops and other random features. Volunteers helping pull the structures to pieces on July 30 filled an ice cream tub with nails and loaded two truckloads worth of non-natural wood.
Arian Spiteri, a conservation officer for Alberta Parks, thinks the structures built and used are an issue for the park and disturb the integrity of the wildlife corridors.
“Wildlife encounters people on a regular basis in the valley and by staying on designated trails, human use becomes a bit more predictable to the animals trying to use the landscape,” Spiteri said. “By having people all over the place (in the wildlife corridor), there’s no predictability for human use for wildlife.”
Melanie Percy, senior park ecologist for Kananaskis region, says research has shown unauthorized trial use can cause temporary or outright habitat abandonment with wildlife in the area.
A number of species use the corridor for secure movement opportunities, but human conflict threatens that, says Percy.
If caught, constructing a mountain bike structure in a park would mean a mandatory court appearance, but Spiteri says it’s also illegal for people to enter a wildlife corridor, damage natural parkland, or construct unauthorized trails. Minimum fines start at $287, but higher penalties can be sought.
“Historically, we have had to remove structures from (the Highline Trail area) before and there’s a number more structures that we still have to remove,” Spiteri said.
Alberta Parks’ concern surrounding the structures being assembled and used include encouraged travel through a wildlife corridor and on undesignated areas, construction of any sort of structure on parks land is not permitted, and safety concerns.
“(The structures are) not being maintained so they could be dangerous for a variety of other reasons,” Spiteri said, adding that it was tough to say if there have been any human or wildlife injuries as a result.
Park trees have been cut down or damaged in order to make most of the structures, Spiteri says, and volunteers scattered the natural wood from the dismantled structures around the area.
There are designated mountain bike trails throughout the Canmore Nordic Centre. Maps of the trails are available at the Nordic Centre or online for people to view which ones to use and when they’re open during the year.
For a portion of 2014 and into next year, Alberta Parks are going to “beef up” signs on authorized and unauthorized trails to inform the public of where to be.
To volunteer for future projects with Alberta Parks, please call 403-673-3663.
